Discovery Museum

The Discovery Museum of Orange County today will host its Volunteer Orientation Night so that people interested in donating their time can get information on a variety of available positions. The meeting will be at the historic Maag Family Carriage Barn, built in 1899 on the museum's grounds. It will last about an hour. The Discovery Museum is at 3101 W. Harvard St. in Santa Ana. Information: (714) 540-0404 --BY MIMI KO CRUZ AND JOHN POPE

You never know what you might see in Reno. On our first night in town, my wife and 6-year-old daughter called me to look out the window of our 27th-story hotel room. There, in the center of town, was a brilliant fireworks display - an appropriate welcome to this Nevada town full of flash and color. Although there is a plethora of casinos and night life, we found this mini-Vegas to be offbeat and kid-friendly. It's also affordable: two nights at Circus Circus cost about $175, a buffet dinner for two at the Silver Legacy was $50 and the Discovery Museum cost $24 for two adults and one child.

The Discovery Museum of Orange County is seeking volunteers for a variety of positions. People with interests in history, science, teaching, gardening, bird watching and restoring antiques can find rewarding opportunities at the museum, officials said. The Discovery Museum, situated on 11 acres in Santa Ana, consists of a historic plaza with two Victorian homes from the 1890s, a blacksmith shop, rose and herb gardens, a gazebo and picnic grounds.

A debate between a museum fighting to keep its nature preserve and a school district desperate to expand may be resolved soon as part of a complicated proposal that also involves the city of Santa Ana. The private, nonprofit Discovery Museum of Orange County agreed to let the Santa Ana Unified School District build the county's first fundamental high school, focusing on science and technology, on 2.5 acres it owns next to the museum.

The pall cast over the local economy by Orange County's bankruptcy has prompted officials at the Discovery Museum to postpone construction of an IMAX theater indefinitely, a spokeswoman said Friday. The seven-story IMAX theater was to be part of a $25-million Discovery Science Center science education center full of exhibits at the northern edge of Santa Ana, said spokeswoman Pam Shambra. "We will put the IMAX in. We just won't do it in the initial phase," she said.

October 15, 1992 | CORINNE FLOCKEN, Corinne Flocken is a free-lance writer who regularly covers Kid Stuff for The Times Orange County Edition.

Ask an adult to discuss the late Victorian period and you'll either get a blank stare or a windy dissertation. But recently, a group of young researchers had some refreshing thoughts on the subject: "Mushy." "Soft." And (my personal favorite) "Ewww!" These 2- to 4-year-old historians, members of a Huntington Beach play group, were taking part in the Victorian Cottage tour, a fledgling program offered for preschool children by the Discovery Museum of Orange County.

In the midst of a Santa Ana industrial park is a bit of Orange County's past just waiting to be discovered. At the Discovery Museum, on Harvard Street near Fairview Street, visitors can step back in time and find out what life was like around the turn of the century. Set on 11 acres, the museum includes four historic buildings, a citrus orchard, 300 rose bushes and the museum office. The centerpiece is the Kellogg House.

Her days are usually filled with surveys, charts and demographics. But on Saturday, 28-year-old Tonya Todd left the corporate life behind and found herself digging weeds, contending with bugs and fighting allergies--all in the name of community service.

You never know what you might see in Reno. On our first night in town, my wife and 6-year-old daughter called me to look out the window of our 27th-story hotel room. There, in the center of town, was a brilliant fireworks display - an appropriate welcome to this Nevada town full of flash and color. Although there is a plethora of casinos and night life, we found this mini-Vegas to be offbeat and kid-friendly. It's also affordable: two nights at Circus Circus cost about $175, a buffet dinner for two at the Silver Legacy was $50 and the Discovery Museum cost $24 for two adults and one child.

Science and history will be explored in a series of workshops for children offered next week at the Discovery Museum of Orange County. These hands-on workshops will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. "American Indian Adventures," scheduled for Tuesday, will be led by Mark Mendez of the Chumash Nation of Southern California. Mendez will teach children ages 6 through 12 about Native American folklore using crafts, games and storytelling.

The Santa Ana Unified School District is hoping to recruit parents in its lengthy fight to open the county's first high school focusing on science and technology, right next door to the Discovery Museum of Orange County. After two years of unsuccessful negotiations with the museum, the district this week held public meetings to present its case. Hundreds of parents and school officials packed into the meetings.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be an archeologist? Archeology is the scientific study of past human culture, technology and behavior based on studying the things that people have left behind. What does it take to be an archeologist? It takes patience, knowledge and a little detective work to uncover the mysteries of the past. Sometimes archeologists do not find the actual remains of human cultures, but they may find impressions of things people left behind.

On behalf of Discovery Museum of Orange County, I want to respond to Supt. Al Mijares' opinion in the April 11 Times: "Santa Ana Has a Perfect Spot for New School." He wrote, "It is clear that construction of a new high school on a parcel owned by the district, located at Centennial Regional Park and the Nature Center, offers the best alternative for taxpayers, students and educators." Representatives of the school district continuously promote this concept by camouflaging the fact that they want to build a three-story high school in the heart of the Discovery Museum, piercing its existence in Orange County.

What does a community need more? A high school or a museum? While the issue of where to build Santa Ana's next high school is much more complex, that's the crux of the debate between the city's school district and the Discovery Museum of Orange County. At stake is whether Santa Ana Unified should erect a campus on a 22-acre lot it owns--which now houses two small schools and the Discovery Museum.

A search to find space for a fifth high school campus has sparked a lease dispute between the Santa Ana Unified School District and the Discovery Museum. Faced with booming enrollment and a lack of undeveloped parcels big enough for a high school campus, district officials have targeted a corner of district-owned land in Centennial Park. Most of the park, the largest in Santa Ana, is owned by the city.

A trip along Fairview Street in Santa Ana can be a voyage of discovery. The Discovery Museum of Orange County is marking its centennial, for instance, and Centennial Regional Park is adjacent. If it's a weekend, you can sample the festive Mexican dish menudo. LATE MORNING 1 All-you-can-eat menudo!

The turn of the century telescope and domed observatory at Santa Ana College was built to view stars and planets up to 3 billion miles away. But for the past 30 years, the telescope has been rendered useless by a more earthly plague: air conditioning. Air conditioning and ventilation motors, which share a rooftop with the telescope, send out vibrations that make the telescope inoperative.

The Discovery Museum of Orange County today will host its Volunteer Orientation Night so that people interested in donating their time can get information on a variety of available positions. The meeting will be at the historic Maag Family Carriage Barn, built in 1899 on the museum's grounds. It will last about an hour. The Discovery Museum is at 3101 W. Harvard St. in Santa Ana. Information: (714) 540-0404 --BY MIMI KO CRUZ AND JOHN POPE